"Jon Rose is one of the most productive, original and focused people I know; he's also an extraordinary musician and an inspired composer. To mark his 60th anniversary we are releasing this three CD box of previously unreleased works ranging from radio documentary and radio fiction to virtuoso performances taken from all manner of contexts, using both the acoustic violin and the hyperstring interactive bow system. There's a remarkable improvised violin concerto (the rest of the mini-orchestras' parts are written out), as well as collaborations with Australian locals (multiple brass bands, musical whips, lounge pianists, aboriginal choirs, orchestrated corrugated iron, musical gum leaves, auctioneers, chainsaws, singing dingos, bowed saw orchestras, and so on). There's a duo with George - an Albert's Lyrebird, and concerts with contemporary ensembles and heavy earthmoving equipment. It comes accompanied by a great deal of extraordinary film - and some purely audio - material collected together on a supplementary data disc. Plus there's a generous booklet of texts, documents, and photographs - and, of course, a souvenir sample of bow-hair."

"The People's Music is part homage, part parody, and part meditation on these themes. A string orchestra whisks through re-composed shards of the classical repertoire; a Red Guard factory guide barks instructions; a three-piece percussion ensemble from time to time intervenes destructively. Meanwhile, Rose himself conducts with a plastic replica of Mao's embalmed left hand, and interjects with bursts of his electronic hypertstring violin. Not to mention that this spectacle was recorded in the unlikely and inaccessible Australian outback location of Wogarno Station, Murchison, about six hours' drive north of Perth -- somehow with the press there in full force."

"For his latest ReR CD, Jon Rose has discarded his identity as humorist, joker & evil genius in favor of a single minded attack on the violin. The Hyperstring Project uses software developed in collaboration with Steim in Amsterdam, and his violin is now able to fire off independent contrapuntal lines -- in his words 'rogue counterpoint' -- drawing on countless samples from a sonic database. Backwards, forwards and inside-out strings sounds compete with harpsichords, voices, and indescribable electronic resonances, enabling Rose to accompany himself, generating a complex and intense musical argument."

"Since the early 80's, Rose has been busily building a series of very long string instruments. These creations were originally inspired by the wind-triggered fences of the Australian outback, where air currents hitting the stretched out wires managed to create an aeolian harp effect. When bowed, these fences were found to emit a large variety of sounds." Some very nice sounds here, but a lot of spoken text as well. The idea of contrasting droning sound and spoken text within the same context is so radically inconsideritate of the listener's pleasure center, that it probably constitutes some sort of "joke" in one of the various corner's of Mr. Rose's universe. Hard-core Rose fanatics will add a better-than-average CD to their pile with this one, but if you're merely interested in the resonant possibilities of long-stringed instruments, Ellen Fullmen (or much of the Het Apollohuis back catalog) would suit you much better.

"Australian violinist Jon Rose, together with an international cast of improvisors including Lauren Newton, Joelle Leandre, Otomo Yoshihide & Chris Cutler unleashes one of his wildest & dizzying releases of his already wild career. Taken from an unexpurgated radio recording of his 1994 Victoriaville Festival performance."

"A funny, typically nutty release by this internationally known troublemaker, instrument maker and violinist (not necessarily in that order). This is billed as `an opera perverse,' and includes Shelly Hirsch & Phil Minton."